Container-arranging apparatus



S. EBERLY.

CONTAJ'NERYARRANGING APPARATUS;

APPLICATION FILED DEC. is. me.

Patented July 18, 1922.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

Gwen mg S. EBERLY.

CONTAINER ARRANGING APPARATUS,

APPLICATION FILED DEC.18. 1919.

1,422,942. Patented y 18, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

entree stares SYLVESTER EBERLY, OF TOLEDO, OHIO,

Assreavon ro DAVID A. Yonnn, or TOLEDO, 01110; I

CONTAINER-ARRANGING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 18, 1922.,

Application filed. December 18, 1919. Serial No. 345,898.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, SLYVESTER EBERLY, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Toledo, Lucas county, Ohio, have invented new and useful Container-Arrang ing Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to mechanism for grouping in definite position containers having different top and bottom features.

This invention has utility when incorporated in can handling mechanism or container arranging apparatus for supplying said cans to fillers, the cans being provided with small filling openings central of the top.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary View, in plan of an embodiment of the apparatus as a can handling machine especially adapted for talls of the type of condensed milk cans;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective View of the apparatus of Fig. 1, showing the first stages of the arranging and sorting;

Fig. 3 is an additional detail of the first sorting of the apparatus;

Fig. 4 is a section on the line IV-IV, Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3, but showing the second sorting means of the apparatus; and

Fig. 6 is a section on the line VT-VI, Fig. 5.

Power as from electric mains 1, 2, may be supplied past main switch 3, to lines 4, 5, eX- tending to starting box 6, having handle 7 from which starting boX 6, power lines 8 and 9 as controlled by the starting box may supply power to motor 10 having shaft 11 with bevel gear 12 thereon in mesh with bevel gear 13 on upwardly extending shaft 14 having on the top thereof friction wheel 15 coacting with frictional flange 16 downwardly extending from rotary platform or table 17 of this can or container arranging apparatus as a drive therefor, this apparatus being centrally mounted on fixed bearing 18 and having extending thereover a holding bracket 19.

Above this table or platform 17 is mounted shaker hopper 20 for receiving the cans. This shaker hopper 20 is oscillated or shaken by crank and connecting rod rocked device 21 operated by the motor 10 to have the cans fall onend through openings 22 to the platform 17. Ledges 22 from the cut-out sides of the tubular opening 22 keep the cans from tipping over on leaving the tube if engaged by another can. Fixed guide 23 on the'table 1s a crowding means urging the cans as standing on end to slide on such end toward the series of members 24 in forcing the cans into a single row as a series along the outer edge of the way providing platform 17 and between posts 26. Beneath the platform 17 is a fixed cam 27 which may engage the lower edge of pins 28 to force such pins upward against helical spring 29, thereby urgmg the plus upward centrally of the seating position between the posts 26 so that the pins may enter opening 30 in top 31 of can 32 when the can is top down. But the can having bottom 33 down, the pin 28 in being urged upward forces the can upward against bevel shoulder 34 which tends to urge the top of the can outward to fall on flange or delivery way portion 35 of the platform 17.

In the stalls formed by the shoulders 36, radially aligned with the posts 26, these shoulders 36 are urged upward by the cam 27 when the pin 28 is thrust upward to protrude above the table for a short distance of table travel. The cylindrical cans 32 which had the filling openings 30 in the top thereof when on end are now arranged in the first classification with these holes radially outward from the platform 17 The remaining unsorted cans, accordingly, are really sorted with the filling openings 30 downward. The second or remaining classification or sorting is now effected at the next stage around this table or rotary platform 17 F ixedly mounted on the platform 17 is spring arm 37 normally actuated by compression spring 38 to be thrust radially outward to have its lug 39 snapped or ride between the posts 26 at a position close to the top of the table 17 Therebeyond this spring arm 37 has a tongue 40. A stationary guide 41 is anchored to the frame and disposed near the top of the can 32 in the region of this snapper or second classifier'37, 38, 39, 40. Accordingly, when this lug 39 is snapped past the post 26 which has a can 32 therein with the filling opening or tops 31 down, the down end is knocked radially outward into a stall between a pair of shoulders 36, the up end of the can being held inward by the fixed guide 41. These shoulders 36 each in region 27 of the cam with the pin below the table or platform 17 maintain the stalls for the unsorted ca s f e s classification so that there is a space for each of these cans of the second classification automatically preserved in the operation of the machine.

By thrusting or knocking the bottom of these cans out which have the filling opening down, these filling openings 30 are thrown radially outward and all of the cans are really arranged in one mode of assortment with the filling openings radially outward on this ledge 35 and between the shoulders 36. The cans 30 from the original single row are all now knocked out of the seats between the posts 26 of the platform 17 and provide a continuous stream on the flange 35.

At station 42 beyond this full stream of arranged cans, the cam 27 engaging the pins 28 has a further drop 4L3 therein permitting the springs 29 to operate in lowering the shoulders 36 into the flange 35. Cam 43 insures this lowering. The last shoulders 36 accordingly serve as positive means for forcing or urging the laid-down cans along chute 411 i as held by upper bar ist and thence through ninety degree swirl 4:5 to upend the cans with the filling openings 30 on the top thereof and thus form a positive drive in delivering these cans to belt conveyor e6 for being conveyed, say to a filling machine or filling machines as may be desired.

This belt conveyor 46 is herein shown as operable by drive pulley 41;? on shaft e8 having worm gear 49 actuable by worm 50 on shaft 51. of motor 52 provided with starting box having starting handle 54. The current is supplied past the switch 3 by lines 55, 56, to this starting box Accordingly, in the normal operation of this sorting or container arranging apparatus in connection with this conveyor for delivering such assorted, arranged containers to a filling machine, an operator adjacent the filling machine, when it is desired to stop, may pull the main switch 3 thereby simultaneously, automatically stopping not only eonveyo r 4:6 to stop delivery of cans to the filling machine, but simultaneously stop the sorting machine platform 17. This will preclude any crowding of the conveyor when stopped by the operation of the sorting apparatus.

lVith starting boxes of the usual type as herein shown,.when it is desired to again start operation of the machine, main switch 8 may be thrown and then the starting boxes 6 and may be separately operated for the starting of the different motors l0 and 52. The shitting or handling of the small containers in bulk without arrangement is a matter of economy, and this sorting is simply and rapidly effective in unloading these containers from cars or from bins and the sorting may be at a rate, say of over four hundred per minute in the normal operation of the machine and this by an ap paratus simple in its structure which may be operated with practically no attention to be given thereto by operators. The workers at the filling machine, by throwing the main switch 3 may positively control the sorting apparatus 17 to prevent clogging of the conveyor L6.

hat is claimed and it is desired to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A machine for arranging containers as to the filling end, embodying a supply way, selector mechanism shifting containers from said way, a conveyor for receiving said selected containers, driving means for the conveyor and machine, and means for simultaneously stopping the conveyor and machine.

A machine for arranging containers as to a filling end, a conveyer, driving means for the machine, and a way for the containers from the machine to the conveyer, said driving means coacting to crowd the containers from the machine through the way to the conveyer.

3. A machine for arran ing containers having differing tops and bottoms, a way therefrom, and means for selectively delivering top up containers from the machine to said way. Y

4 A machine for arranging containers having differing tops and bottoms, a way therefrom, first means for delivering one sorting from the machine to said way with spaces for the unsorted, and second means for delivering the remaining unsorted containers to the way between the sorted containers.

5. A machine for arranging cylindrical cans having small filling openings central of one end thereof, means for disposing the cans to stand on end, first means for tilting on end cans with the filling opening end up, and second means for oppositely tilting on end cans with the filling opening end down.

(3. A machine for arranging cylindrical cans having small filling openings central of one end thereof, means for disposing the cans to stand on end, top-outward throw means for classifying and tilting one portion of the on end cans, and bottom-outward throw means for the remaining on end cans.

7. A machine for arranging cylindrical cans having central small filling openings at the top thereof, means for disposing the cans to stand on end, top-outward throw means for bottom-down on end cans, and bottomoutward throw means for the bottom-up on end cans.

8. A machine for arranging cylindrical cans having filling openings in one end thereof, means for disposing the cans to stand on end, throw means for thrusting outward the tops of the bottom-down cans, a way for receiving and holding said thrown cans, and bottom-outward throw means for the bottom-up on end cans in delivering said latter cans to the way between the former cans.

9. A machine for arranging cylindrical cans having central filling openings in the top thereof, means for disposing the cans to stand on end, a series of seats, means for urging the on-end cans into said seats, outward throw means for the bottom-down on end cans, a delivery way for receiving and holding said thrown cans from said seats, and bottom-outward throw means for the bottom-up on end cans, removing said cans from said seats to deposit said cans on said way between the top outwardly thrown cans.

10. A container arranging apparatus comprising a rotatable platform, a shaker for placing cylindrical cans on end on said platform, crowding means for arranging the onend cans in a row near the outer edge of the platform, an endless series of seats about said platform, means f or urging the on-end cans into said seats from said row, first means coacting with the can bottoms for outwardly crowding tops of cans from the seats, a flange having stalls for receiving laid down cans as sorted from the seats, and sec ond means coacting to outwardly throw the bottoms of the remaining cans from the seats to lay said cans down in the stalls between the cans laid down therein by the first means.

11. A. container arranging apparatus embodying a shaker, a guide tube therefrom, a traveling platform to which the tube delivers, and steadying means for the containers on the platform as leaving the tube.

12. A container arranging apparatus ernbodying a traveling platform having a discharge side, a series of spring arms for shifting the containers into file along said platform discharge side, and means in addition to said file forming arms for removing the containers from said file on said SYLVESTER EBERLY. 

